about
Natasja Pelgrom
my story
I have held space in over 1,000 entheogenic ceremonies, working with 5-MeO-DMT and psilocybin in legal and decriminalized settings. My experience spans private retreats, professional training environments, and clinical-adjacent contexts.
I advise on entheogenic holistic curated programs, wellness strategy, and leadership design for academic initiatives and mission-driven organizations. I also host The Awaken Podcast and founded Stewards of the Sacred, now preparing for its third global edition.
Before dedicating myself fully to transformational work, I built and led ventures across hospitality, art, and culture, managing teams of 50+ and producing events drawing over 35,000 attendees.
Hard Lessons
Authority was shaped through mistakes.
I have overgiven. I have seen stakeholders attempt to duplicate or industrialize human transformation. I have navigated the friction between healing and business realities. These experiences strengthened my boundaries and refined my standards.
I am no longer available to:
• Facilitate psychedelic work inside other organizations
• Participate in mass-produced transformational programs
• Contribute to reductionist “101-level” psychedelic narratives focused solely on mental health
Depth requires discernment.
teaching style
My turning point came in 2012.
By the age of 32, I had built what many would call success. I had founded ventures, led teams, produced large-scale cultural events, and received recognition as a young entrepreneur. My ego had been rewarded. My ambition had been affirmed.
But my devotion had been hidden.
Since the age of fourteen, I had quietly walked a parallel path as a student of philosophy, contemplative traditions, entheogenic work, and expanded states of consciousness. I studied with teachers across lineages, practiced meditation, participated in vision quests, and immersed myself in both indigenous and contemporary spiritual frameworks.
In 2012, I realized I could no longer keep those worlds separate. I no longer wanted to build only visible success. I wanted to build meaningful impact.
That shift led to the founding of Awaken the Medicine Within in 2017, and later the Eudaimonia Institute. My work became centered on cultivating human flourishing through mature, ethical, and embodied transformation.
experience
My teaching is rigorous, relational, and grounded.
I have studied philosophy, client-centered coaching, Somatic Experiencing, energy healing, NLP, EFT, depth psychology, transpersonal practices, Zen Buddhism, mindfulness, Native American traditions, Curanderismo, pagan traditions, and vision quest work. I have walked for over twenty years alongside clinically trained academics and traditionally Amazonian-trained peers, cross-pollinating frameworks and perspectives.
My approach is deliberate. I study one expanded state or discipline at a time, integrating it deeply before moving forward. For the past two years, I have personally worked with darkness practices and sensory deprivation as part of my ongoing inquiry into consciousness and integration.
Through Presence-Centered Leadership™, I support facilitators, founders, and practitioners to cultivate metaphysical literacy, ethical discernment, and embodied authority. I do not separate business from healing. I examine the tensions between them.
The Journey
Entrepreneurship (Early 2000s – 2012)
Founded and scaled ventures across hospitality, cultural production, and creative industries in Amsterdam. Led multidisciplinary teams of 50+ and produced public events drawing over 35,000 attendees. Established one of the Netherlands’ youngest female-led entrepreneur associations.
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2012 – The Turning Point
A defining realization: external success had been achieved, yet devotion and spiritual depth remained hidden. Chose to integrate decades of private study in philosophy, contemplative traditions, and entheogenic practice into visible leadership. Shifted from ambition-driven achievement to impact-driven service.
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2017 – Awaken the Medicine Within
Founded one of Europe’s premier legal, holistic entheogenic immersion experiences. Established ethically curated containers for deep, embodied transformation.
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2021 – The Awaken Podcast
Launched The Awaken Podcast as a platform for nuanced dialogue at the intersection of science, spirituality, leadership, and social transformation. Created a space for mature, multidimensional conversations beyond mainstream narratives.
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2023 – Stewards of the Sacred
Founded a global virtual conference convening leaders across wellness, academia, and entheogenic fields to advance responsible expansion and right relationship.
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2024 – Eudaimonia Institute
EEstablished a global education platform focused on embodied leadership, ethical facilitation, and human flourishing, serving facilitators, founders, and academic collaborators.
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Present – Advisory, Education & Leadership
Creator of Presence-Centered Leadership™. Advisor to facilitators, founders, wellness innovators, and academic initiatives seeking strategic guidance informed by extensive field-based experience in entheogenic and transformational contexts.
Who I Work With
Facilitators and practitioners ready to mature their leadership
High-performing entrepreneurs integrating consciousness into enterprise
founders building wellness and hospitality models rooted in integrity
Leaders with no personal psychedelic experience seeking advisory guidance
Academic and research initiatives seeking strategic advisory informed by extensive field-based experience in entheogenic and transformational contexts.
‘Natasja is a remarkably gifted and skilled guide and healer. On a basic human level, she is sensitive and intuitive and seems to have an ability to listen and understand people that’s pretty rare these days. She brings ancient wisdom and traditions to the ceremonies and workshops she holds. She has a powerful presence during the ceremony yet holds the space with a gentle, non-judgmental, friendly and down to earth attitude.
I have been amazed how she can hold each person story and be aware of what they need to work on at any moment, always knowing when we need guidance and when we need to work thru what comes up alone. Her work before and after each ceremony is equally important and she has helped me enormously both with preparation and integration. I am also impressed with how quickly and precisely she can get to the root of whatever is disturbing someone to help them identify it and work thru it.
What I like best is that despite her considerable gifts and skills she does not have a “spiritual ego” or fall into the trap of becoming a sort of guru or hold herself at a remove from clients , rather she reminds us that we are all human and have human frailties and with that she puts us at ease and allows us to explore both our vulnerabilities and strengths’
— Mentee & Retreat Participant // tomm c. entrepeneur u.k.
